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Comparison of long-term treatment outcomes of laser and anti-VEGF therapy in retinopathy of prematurity: a multicentre study from J-CREST group

Eye volume 37, pages 3589–3595 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives

To compare real-world, long-term outcomes of laser and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapies in patients with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Methods

This was a multicentre retrospective study. We included 264 eyes of 139 patients treated for type 1 ROP or aggressive ROP (AROP) who were followed for at least 4 years. Laser treatment was initially performed in 187 eyes (the laser group), and anti-VEGF therapy was initially performed in 77 eyes (the anti-VEGF group). We collected data on sex, birth characteristics, zone, stage, and the presence of plus disease at the time of treatment and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), spherical equivalent (SE), and ocular complications (amblyopia and strabismus) in patients aged 4–6 years. We investigated the associations between treatment outcomes (BCVA, SE and the presence of amblyopia and strabismus) and influencing factors, including treatment procedure (anti-VEGF or laser therapy), sex, birth characteristics, zone, stage, and the presence of plus disease, using multivariable analysis and logistic regression analyses.

Results

The initial treatment procedure was not associated with any specific treatment outcome. Subgroup analysis of patients with zone I ROP revealed that the anti-VEGF-treated eyes had significantly better BCVA and higher SE than laser-treated eyes (p = 0.004, p = 0.009, respectively). Female patients presented significantly better BCVA, less amblyopia and less strabismus than male patients (p < 0.001, p = 0.029, p = 0.008, respectively).

Conclusions

In zone I ROP, anti-VEGF therapy led to better visual acuity and less myopic refractive error than laser treatment.

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Data availability

The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japan-Clinical Retina Study Group (J-CREST), Kagoshima, Japan

    Tomoya Murakami, Fumiki Okamoto, Takamasa Kinoshita, Kayo Shinomiya, Tomo Nishi, Shumpei Obata, Shuntaro Ogura, Yuka Nishihara, Hideyuki Tsukitome, Tatsuya Jujo, Kaori Ueda & Tetsuro Oshika

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Tomoya Murakami, Fumiki Okamoto & Tetsuro Oshika

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, Sapporo City General Hospital, Sapporo, Japan

    Takamasa Kinoshita

  4. Department of Ophthalmology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan

    Kayo Shinomiya

  5. Department of Ophthalmology, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan

    Tomo Nishi

  6. Department of Ophthalmology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan

    Shumpei Obata

  7. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

    Shuntaro Ogura

  8. Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kurume University, Kurume, Japan

    Yuka Nishihara

  9. Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, Tsu, Japan

    Hideyuki Tsukitome

  10. Department of Ophthalmology, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan

    Tatsuya Jujo

  11. Division of Ophthalmology, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    Kaori Ueda

  12. Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Ryota Ishii

Authors
  1. Tomoya Murakami
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  2. Fumiki Okamoto
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  6. Shumpei Obata
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  7. Shuntaro Ogura
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  8. Yuka Nishihara
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  9. Hideyuki Tsukitome
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  13. Tetsuro Oshika
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Contributions

TM: study design, acquisition of data, analysis of data, interpretation of data, drafting article, final approval of article. FO: study design, drafting article and final approval of article. TK, KS, TN, SOb, SOg, YN, HT, TJ and KU: study design, acquisition of data, critical revision of article and final approval of article. RI: study design, analysis of data, critical revision of article and final approval of article. TO: supervision, study design, critical revision of article and final approval of article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tomoya Murakami.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Tsukuba University Hospital (Approval number: R03-081).

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Murakami, T., Okamoto, F., Kinoshita, T. et al. Comparison of long-term treatment outcomes of laser and anti-VEGF therapy in retinopathy of prematurity: a multicentre study from J-CREST group. Eye 37, 3589–3595 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02559-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02559-z

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